


Salarian Reproduction in Halfway Home

by RawLiverAndCigarettes



Series: Halfway Home - Meta Explorations [1]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Culture, Alien Gender/Sexuality, Alien Sex, Aromantism, Asexuality, Criticism, Matriarchy, Meta, No Smut, Other, References to notions around sexual assault, cw frog genitals on the internet, just biology, original trilogy, references to notions around forced marriages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 11:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18872515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RawLiverAndCigarettes/pseuds/RawLiverAndCigarettes
Summary: This thinkpiece is the full explanation of my headcanons regarding salarian reproduction, and those that will be used for Halfway Home. This is a very biology-focused text and my logic about the subject, and doesn't touch much on the administrative/political details of how a reproduction contract is devised (though this subject is on my list).There are bits of critics on the games' writing along the way though. And confusing references to pop songs.





	Salarian Reproduction in Halfway Home

Hello internet.

This unnecessary essay uncovers my attempt at building a cohesive system out of the various pieces found in the Mass Effect series regarding salarian mating practices. The Halfway Home series will follow a cast involving different salarian characters, including a sex worker, so this research and work had to be done at some point on my side anyway. Given how relatively unexplored the topic is, I thought it might be fun to share it with other salarian enthusiasts out there!

I also have the regret to announce this is not porn.

 

**Disclaimer!**

Everything listed below is my take on the subject for Halfway Home needs. And while I know we are all adults here willing to explore each other’s headspaces without compromising their own in the process, be certain this is not about me dictating the «right way» to think about fictional aliens making babies. That would be ridiculous, and I have zero idea what I could possibly get out of doing this. In fact I am super interested in hearing your own takes on the topic, which I feel is full of potential for meaningful conversations, so feel free to do just that!

**Another disclaimer!**

I have not played enough of Andromeda to incorporate any recent material in Halfway Home and its universe logic, and I don’t plan to incorporate it, as the risk of invalidating years of work for a piece of fiction I’m not invested in is not super worth it to me. I also have consumed few of Mass Effect’s side canon material, so this whole essay is mostly concentrated on my thoughts on the Original Trilogy only.

**Yet another disclaimer!**

There is way too many dubious references to strange, out-of-place song titles. I am tired.

**There are too many disclaimers!**

I refer to genders in this essay with a reproductive framing first, and not so much about expression and social coding (so a very cis-centered viewpoint), though I’d love to explore that more in the future.

**One last disclaimer!**

I have a weird way of looking at canon material, especially in regards to what is exposed in Codex or told. I tend to follow first what I can see from the world we can experience ingame and my observations on that (the «show» part), then fall back on the Codex/exposition. In general, I approach the Codex more as the common way people, mostly humans, think in this universe rather than as a universal beacon of truth, especially in Halfway Home’s case. I also disregard what some characters say sometimes. I have done that once for this topic, and I will explain why when we get to it. But since it is really old work I’m digging up for this, I don’t always remember what canon information I have disregarded. So just in case, it can be interesting to keep that in mind.

**Very true last disclaimer I promise!**

For some reason I seem to talk about sexual violence a lot, which can be understandably upsetting. Sorryyy.

 

* * *

 

  **WHAT WE DO KNOW**

**Who Salarians Are and Who They Bang**

 

Salarians comprise a complex matriarchal society of warm-blooded amphibians that lay eggs and reproduce haplodiploidically. That much is beyond dispute, and we have to start somewhere.

Haplodiploidy is a biologic sex-determination system found mostly in insects here on Earth, such as bees, ants and wasps, as well as some pesky spiders. Unfertilized eggs will hatch into males (or non-sexual individuals for many eusocial insects) with half the chromosomes of their females counterparts, while fertilized ones will develop into females. It also means that females can spontaneously lay male offspring, but require mating for the species to survive.

The codex informs us that salarian females lay dozens of eggs once a year, to which I will for now accept as a thing all while silently holding back Thoughts. But that does teach us salarians probably go through yearly breeding seasons. We also know social codes strictly limit female offspring as less or equal to 10% of the population to avoid uncontrollable baby booms. That is interesting for many reasons, one of them being that salarians have a reliable way of dictating which eggs in a clutch will get fertilized and which won’t.

What salarian offspring look like and the way and speed to which they mature remains subject to debate. The two main schools of thought I’ve personally encountered on the internet are the mammal approach (a smaller version of the adults) and the tadpole approach, with huge physical transformations from birth to adulthood. And while I do believe salarians mature way quicker than other species, the fact that learning is such an important aspect of their culture could mean transmission overrides their base instinct in terms of the way their brains develop. So despite the imprinting quickening the process, that learning factor would lead me to believe full maturation doesn’t happen before at least a few years.

We also know the species have cloacae, which in fact isn’t telling much besides all “evacuation” going through a single hole instead of several like mammals tend to have. The cloacal apparel can largely differ depending on the species, with a large variety of phallic weirdness or lack thereof, and a considerable range of things that could happen between the few sweet seconds of a cloacal kiss, the suffocating embrace of frogs or the ducks’ nightmarish mating rituals.

Another small thing we know through a brief dialogue snippet in the DLC Citadel from a human engineer that worked on a model for them is that salarians use “reproduction pools” to get business done.

The last big piece that we can address as “things we know” before getting to my wild speculations is anything related to sexual attraction.

Salarians, as a culture, are largely asexual and aromantic, having sex only if they get a reproduction contract and with reproduction purposes. From that we can deduct a huge majority of salarian males live and die without mating. The Codex says sex isn’t pursued the way most other species pursue it for its own sake, and romantic relationships are a very foreign concept to their core culture as well.

According to Mordin Solus, salarians’ reproduction isn’t hormone-based, and that should be why their society is largely asexual and aromantic. I’ll hold back my numerous loud Thoughts on this as well, and won’t question it further. For now. It is, after all, a thing that we know.

However, we do also know salarians still have some sense of sexual attraction from several ingame examples and mentions. Out of that very helpful stripper scene from Mass Effect 2, we know salarians males find their own females attractive. We also know, from Mordin again, that twitching your lower eyelid have suggestive connotations in salarian society, which I find weird, but that implies that some salarians out there have to be suggestive _sometimes_. We also know salarians are attracted, mate and even have children with asaris, as it is shown or mentioned at least 5 times in the Trilogy as far as I can remember –twice in Mass Effect 1 (the Consort client and Anoleis’ sexual scandal with an asari) and three times in Mass Effect 2 (all of them on Illium). We also know from Mordin Solus that some salarians will experiment with sexuality just because they have curiosity for alien cultures and bodies. So a sense of interpersonal attraction does exist, which will be important for taking decisions down the line.

That is the basis of what we can work with. As you can probably see, some contradictions blur the picture already, and some vagueness could benefit from being narrowed down.

Let’s talk about salarian females.

 

* * *

 

  **WHO RUN THE WORLD**

**Matriarchy, Birth Control, Consent, and Why I Chose That Salarian Males Would Not Have Dicks**

 

I think one of the most striking traits of salarians are the matriarchy their culture evolved into.

It really could have been the other way around, and easily so, as females are so incredibly outnumbered and could have become exchange money themselves instead of pushing males into the disposable workforce we guess them to be stuck into nowadays.

For females to seize power in such a dramatic manner, making their sparsity a strength rather than a liability, I think they have to hold the full control on their mating practices.

Here in our sad, sad Earth, it is well documented that rape is a deadly weapon of conquest, not only because of the terror and demoralization, but also because the conqueror’s genetic pool is being forcefully spread to the new generations of the conquered that they now have to care for. It is so efficient that even today, Genghis Khan’s genetic lineage exists in roughly 0,5% of the global population (or even more).

And while it is entirely possible for humans to form successful matriarchal societies, they remain sparse at large, often under attack from the outside. Generally speaking, the inability to consent to pregnancy for human women makes it very hard to access power and maintain control as a group. Men can walk away from the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy, while women cannot.

But when we look at other matriarchal examples in nature, some interesting patterns start to emerge. I’ll take as an example an animal species that I find fascinating for many reasons; the spotted hyena. Not only are their social tissue ferociously matriarchal, but their mating rituals are highly reflective of this dynamic. Female hyenas have erectile clitorises fused with their vaginal opening that rival their males’ penises and has been confused as one for a long time by legends and the scientific community. Once the female have given consent to the male for reproduction, the male still have to train and try for months to mate with her as the access is so unpractical, making the rape of females virtually impossible (just do not try to think too hard about hyenas giving birth, it is just as messy as what you could imagine, and in fact a consequent number of females do not survive it).

Another example, though a bit more shaky for the obvious reasons, are the mating of eusocial insect queens. For example with ants, the actual mating happens once in the princess’ life, and all the male princes die of exhaustion once it is done. After that the queen removes herself sexually and become the sole provider for the colony, focusing on laying eggs and therefore having full control over the population.

This ritualized or difficult access strategy makes me think salarian females can either deny, undo or disregard the mating attempts of males they are not interested in, and that this has been critical in creating the salarian society we know.

Now I’m going to pick back my Thoughts from the “dozens of eggs each year”, and dare to call bullshit on that. Salarian females are supposed to be heavily involved in the politics of their clan, making strategic shots and getting a global overview as it is, after all, a matriarchy (plus the need to maintain high loyalty through the imprint process). Guess what you can’t do when you need to care for the immediate needs of 40+ children unable to look after themselves all while getting ready to lay 20+ more eggs and not die of exhaustion in the process. Tending to the needs of just one children alone is already so absolutely difficult, so these numbers? Every year? It’s in those moments you sort of really feel the lack of womanly perspective in the original Mass Effect world building. And sure, the entire support structure of the clan can help, but the energetic drain of being constantly getting ready to lay eggs plus the early stages of society where those clan structures might not have existed yet or were about to get formed makes me very doubtful that salarian females would have survived for long, as their constant state of vulnerability would have turned them into perfect snacks for predators.

Birth control and matriarchy sort of go hand in hand, for all the reasons evoked above. So I do not think every female mindlessly throws who-knows how many new lives into the world each year, because every life implies a significant number of resources that needs to be provided for that powerless newborn, and most of the time it is just not worth it. I’d even argue birth restriction would have been one of the very first focus of technological or medical inventions in salarian culture. High numbers is only an advantage when the mortality rate is high as well, and as krogans demonstrated so kindly, the second these explosive birth numbers are supposed to turn into a society, this can lead to nothing but war over resources. And while I’m certain war happened eventually, this is not the ground from which salarian society rose nor the way it chose to regulate itself.

So all of that led me to a handful of decisions for Halfway Home’s logic. One of them being to embrace the cloacal kiss approach and deciding salarian males would not have phallic parts, the whole purpose of phallic organs being injectors for semen, making a sexual act really hard to “undo” for a female wanting to avoid pregnancy, especially for one that wants to cultivate her sparsity for power and control.

Alright so before moving I want to quickly address what I will call, with no sense of class whatsoever, the “jerking off on the eggs school of thought” that I’ve come across sometimes. This is more or less what happens with many amphibian populations, especially toads. While this could actually make sense to an extent (especially with the concept of reproduction pools), and be a quick earthly parallel with what would be the salarian equivalent here, I think it doesn’t hold up with the specific lens I decided to go on with.

First off, if the fertilization happens outside the female body, then again there is no way for them to control the population (especially given how females do not have any biological advantage that could help them protect themselves or their offspring). That’s my stubborn argument for the matriarchy lens, but there is also another big reason for which I think this is not how it happens; given salarians’ sexual attraction seem interpersonal and can be applied to other species than their own, it would be strange for them to have clutches of eggs being their only turn on, even if attached to a female body –this doesn’t seem to correspond to the in-game evidence of suggestive eyelids, or even the straight out attraction the ME2 bachelor party guy confesses having for the looks of females of his species (and asaris, and flexibility in general).

So this is why I am not going to pursue this route, thank you and sorry for having to read through that.

 

* * *

 

  **BAD ROMANCE**

**Anatomy, Hormones, Sexual Practices, Society and Arranged Marriages**

 

First things first; very sorry Mordin, but I’m going to completely disregard the “non-hormonal” sexuality logic. Because hormones are way more than just the things provoking or diminishing arousal or dictating sexual attraction (which are two widely different things by the way); they are global transmittors, and they work perfectly well as it is. No need to justify asexuality and aromantism with a lack of hormones, especially with the seasonal mating logic this species seem to have –some sort of biological signal has to trigger females into developing eggs. This species could just have a very low sexual drive, either because their hormonal composition doesn’t push for it, or because they have fewer receptors, or just because their sexual organs are different, which they are. I just think removing hormones creates a whole bunch of problems that we could easily avoid by… not doing that.

For the primary sexual characteristics, I decided salarian cloacae would look nearly identical for males and females, at least from the outside; a vertical opening of four to seven centimeters between the legs, slightly larger for the females, further removed than female labia of many other species and invisible if the salarian is standing straight. It is very unnoticeable, besides a slight change of hue to transition between exposed epidermis and the mucous cavity, usually a darker, greener tone.

Salarian cloacae almost don’t self-lubricate, to the noticeable exception of females “in heat”, or more accurately about to lay eggs, whose lubrication is a very characteristic thick substance that will sit at the entrance of their cloaca for three weeks before laying the clutch.

Salarian intercourse is very similar to a longer version of a cloacal kiss; male stimulation is mostly done through rubbing, and requires a lot of lubrication to work, both from the female’s readiness to lay eggs and often the use of water (yay reproduction pools). Salarian cloacae have a limited range of sensitiveness, only around a centimeter around the entrance and two centimeters inside at most, which would make any penetrative activity more painful than pleasurable. And while females can be pleasured, they are not able to reach any form of proper orgasm and generally would not pursue it anyway (I headcanon every “release” sensation to be heavily connected to animals, and thus not considered to feel especially good and be worthy of salarian intellectualism).

An intercourse usually lasts for less than five minutes if done properly, as the focus is more on efficiency than pleasure. The intercourse is considered finished once the male has passed his semen on the female’s thick layer of lubrication. If done properly the mixture will slightly harden and remain there until the female lays her eggs. If no sperm was deposited, the substance is still highly helpful to ease the laying process who can last several hours depending on the number of eggs, and is always done knelt in a pool of water. Both the reproductive intercourse and the laying of eggs are assisted by several medical professionals to make sure everything is going well and both parties perform what is required of them without getting harmed and making sure the exact number of eggs is being fertilized, removing all intimacy from the experience.

Every egg in contact with the fertilized substance has a chance of hatching into a female.

 

 

And to be clear on the egg topic: I entirely see them based on the Earth amphibian model of having a soft membrane requiring a lot of hydration to be viable rather than having any kind of hard shell that would render any contact with water useless –given the use of water during mating, this would seem the most logical choice to me.

Secondary sexual characteristics in salarians are mostly seen in females, usually slightly bigger and taller than males and with wider hips –though this fluctuate heavily depending on the subspecies and gene pools. Most of everything else remains similar, even if males often bear brighter skin tones compared to the often muted ones of their mothers and daughters. Erogenous zones are limited, and mostly connected to the sensitivity of their skin, though I headcanon the spot in which their tadpole tails have retracted at the basis of their spine to be more sensitive (I’ll talk about why I stick with the tadpole interpretation later).

All of this reproductive act actually does an interesting thing that I’ve been trying to achieve; making females in full control of their reproductive functions. If they are unhappy with their sexual encounter, they can just manually get rid of the gel between their thighs, and entirely undo it without suffering to bear unwanted females. If we do admit they have access to an efficient birth control system keeping them from producing eggs in the first place, females master their bodies with scary efficiency.

And while I do not think every salarian, male or female, goes into a reproduction contract entirely satisfied with the situation, I think we escape the daunting trauma of rape scenarios by the sheer fact of pleasure, dominance and reproduction being so divorced. I’d like to consider a society massively asexual and aromantic preserved from some of the pitfalls of our own, especially the burden of arranged marriages, who is a strong parallel often explored when talking about salarians. I personally do not feel it is an entirely fair one. Human culture have a very brutal history with marriage, often meaning death of the individual and end of freedom. I do not think it has to be like that for salarian society. While it remains unfair that a few selected individuals of a certain gender decides what the political future of a clan is, or what members of their family will do with their bodies at a specific moment to further these agendas, this is not remotely as life shattering and unfair as being shipped to a stranger for life and forced into regular penetrative sexual encounters with that person. I headcanon a reproduction contract to be mostly boring and administrative, and the actual mating being as awkward as a slightly humiliating medical exam. And while I still think trauma can happen, it would often be more linked to feeling betrayed by their mothers and Dalatrasses, strongly disagreeing with the political alliance they are being instrumental to, or sharing the genetic pool and family bonds of someone they hate.

For this reason I think rape, at least in the way us humans understand it, is an alien concept to salarian society. The occurrences when it did happen before first contact were all extremely rare and often due to extreme cases of mental disorder. I headcanon it not even being considered a crime on Sur’kesh, not because it’s not horrifying, but because it just never happens. This also comes with its pitfalls, as salarian society would be particularly ill-equipped when it comes to dealing with victims of sexual abuse and would silence and repress the wound more than attempt to heal it (especially post Krogan Rebellions, which had to be one of the most brutally interpersonal conflicts salarians –and asaris, probably– were ever confronted to in such a scale), and would also disregard the traumatic impact of the genophage for the exact same reasons.

A lot of things would have changed after making acquaintances with other species, not only in regards to sexual violence, but also in sexual motivation in general. Asaris would have shook things a lot, especially over such a long time. I do believe salarians born and raised in highly metropolitan areas such as the Citadel, Illium or outside colonies, especially if their families have been established there for a long time, have different approaches to sex, and probably even different hormonal configurations than their surkeshan counterparts –they _would_ get a reproductive advantage to meddle and socialize with other species, making it more likely for their genetic pool to survive modern society.

 

* * *

 

  **THE CYCLE OF LIFE**

**On Salarians Probably Being Preys and Tadpoles Being Cute**

 

I think it’s more than time to address the thresher maw in the room and all of the little clues that have been piling up until now regarding the origin of salarians, and why they convinced me the tadpole approach makes the most sense when it comes to their development.

So a lot of little things seem to heavily imply salarians being natural preys in a way more significant manner than them ever being apex predators.

Looking at salarian anatomy, there is nothing signifying particularly aggressive or defensive features, or any that would be efficient against a predator. The horns might have been more developed in salarian of earlier ages, but evokes more competition between themselves than any sort of efficient defense against a creature out for blood and flesh. Maybe the claws at the end of their feet could deal some sort of damage, but they would only come in handy as the salarian is trying to get away –a kick and run (or swim) sort of strategy. Their elongated body seems to be built for speed and escape, and not to hold their ground and territory nor to take down anything besides insects and small animals. Their lack of visible canines and prevalence of incisors and molars suggest peaceful feeding habits, and even though their very large eyes seem to be directed forward like an owl, they remain far apart on the face and sit right at the edge between the usual prey-like periphery vision and the focus needed for predators. In fact it is very possible their eyes are slowly evolving to get closer as a result of socialization, making it easier to communicate with their peers and express nuance.

The salarian brain is also interesting when approached with this survival frame; photographic memory could help identify danger with way less potentially deadly trial and errors involved, and their non-linear brains would help surprise and flee from predators too slow and predictable to follow.

Another very clear hint that salarian survival was a tough matter in their early days is the sheer amount of eggs and the female autonomy to produce more without help. Salarians are originally built to survive through numbers, not as the disposable individuals they sort of are. And despite Wrex’s comment on Sur’kesh beautiful waterfalls and salarians probably too busy writing poetry to learn true struggle, I have my doubts about this rancor having much ground in reality.

Let’s also not forget Javik’s comments on how salarians “used to eat flies” (still do, I would assume), and how they have been hunted as delicacies by the prothean empire on their early days to be cut open alive for their livers and kidneys to be harvested, as fear “added flavor” (a tradition that seem to have been carried on by krogans and vorchas, maybe to a slightly less barbaric extent). Protheans alone probably made for a terrifying predator that would deeply scar the early days of any culture and highly encourage survivalist avoidance strategies.

The main reason why amphibians have tadpoles in Real Life (TM) is linked to cutting competition in food by not sharing the same environment, and also spare half the population should a predator hit one of the biomes really hard. In salarians’ case it would make sense for them to follow the same logic. The only issue with this method is the imprint, definitively more complex to carry out if the mother and offspring don’t share the same environment. Though it would remain possible for the mother to attend the pond for the first few days after the hatch, making sure the clutch has enough food and autonomy before leaving them be. For a long time salarians could have been stuck in an octopus-like situation, where lack of contact between parents and children stopped the transmission of knowledge and prevented the species from developing culture and technology. But eventually communities could have started to organize, and as adults could have started spending more time with their youth, sustainable communication channels, collaboration and communal cleverness could have allowed salarians to hide better, defend themselves efficiently and slowly take the surprising upper hand of the jungles of Sur’kesh. That might also have been the moment the imprint started to develop fully.

Of course it’s also possible their youths wouldn’t go through a tadpole stage at all, but a child is way less autonomous than a tadpole as they need to learn to walk, will have a harder time feeding themselves and will ask way more work on the mother’s side. So that is why I have settled on the tadpole theory for Halfway Home.

Also salarian tadpoles have unbelievable potential for cuteness, and I am here for it.

 

* * *

 

  **MY LOWER EYELIDS DON’T LIE**

**Erotism in Salarian Cultures, the Repressed Nerd Trope, and Me Being A Preachy Ace**

 

Watch out; here comes beef with ten years old fictional stuff.

One common way of thinking about salarian culture that I’ve found pretty much everywhere, either in canon subtext or fanon interpretation, is the idea that salarians are self-repressed. That their complicated mating rituals leave some form of frustration and bitterness in their trail, that there is even something pitiful or pathetic to all these males plying to the will of matriarchs that nobody seems to respect but them. It is joked about sometimes throughout the trilogy, in more or less overt terms, from this famous bachelor party scene in Mass Effect 2 to some opinionated krogans of Mass Effect 3, and the sort of consensual from other species that salarian females are quite unattractive and unworthy of attention (see Joker’s conversation with EDI in the Purgatory in ME3, or Grunt’s questionable humiliation of one of his soldiers by saying that “trying to mate with salarian females does not count as fighting”, which is a joke with a lot of.… layers). To some extent, if we commit to that interpretation, we could even see the genophage as an extension of the Dalatrasses castrating influence in their quest for control and repression. I mean, that makes for more of a thematic arc than what salarians really get in this game, and I won’t pretend this subtext isn’t here.

But really, this perspective is extremely rooted in “human culture” (by “human culture”, I mean the very western US pro-military dudebro perspective of in-game humans that gives these cultures and characters their certain framing) and does a great disservice to what salarian culture could be. Honestly this is not everyday we have grounds to explore what a matriarchal asexual and aromantic society would truly be like –and things I highly doubt it would be are repressed and castrated, because this is: just not how asexual/aromantic people think. This is, however, how they (we) are being endlessly diagnosed as and trying be corrected out of by society, and this type of thinking can lead to real life abuse (medical misdiagnosis, emotional gaslighting, even corrective sexual assault – sometimes all of it actively sought for as a solution by confused ace people terrified they might be broken).

Of course part of the salarian concept is the “genius nerd” trope, and sexual repression (or disinterest, but often it really is repression) is a huge sub-part of that trope, and the way it’s used to present these people –cis guys 99% of the time– as above the mass using this lowkey asexuality is its whole complicated conversation.

Strangely enough I, personally, don’t mind too much the framing of asexuality/aromantism as alien; sure, it is not very inclusive, especially if you take on the “not asexual” perspective to create that shortcut, but from the perspective of the concerned folks, often it is just how it feels like, carrying an utter weirdness within and navigating a web of interconnections between people you kind of see but never truly get.

So while it is fair to have this reading on salarian society thematically, I decided that I care about feeling represented more, and I don’t like being represented as a frigid, repressed, bitter control-freak, because ~~don’t you dare calling me out like that~~ this is a very misinformed comprehension of asexuality, which does not prevent creating strong emotional bonds with others, pursuing passions and even having your own version of sensuality, and should never keep anything from you that would lead to frustration. If you wanna go bone, go bone, there’s no ace police (that I know of). Asexuality and aromantism are much more subtle and interesting than sexual frustration, and a lot of great nuance and meaning could be found there if we decide to adhere wholeheartedly to the good faith of that posture.

(also I do find interesting that the two major species in this game that are really framed in a bad light at the end of the third game, either because they acted petty or because they “deserved” the destruction of their culture, are the two species that are built as explicit matriarchies rooted in opposite but equally “deviant” cultural sexuality –salarians and asaris, the prudes and the sluts. Just putting that out there, thought I plan to explore this in more details in the future)

Back to our regular schedule, and my thoughts on seduction and eroticism in salarian cultures, as they most likely have different roots and traditions that, despite globalization, still gives potential to a variety of sensibilities. For these reasons, everything that follows is only my take on what could be and based on nearly nothing but instinct.

I think one strong form of attraction between individuals has to be the sharpness of their minds, the depths of their knowledge and the intricacy of their secrets, which would be why females go the extra mile to reach the levels of sophistication and mystery required to be considered attractive. Asaris able to rival with their own cultural take on brilliance would also be considered very desirable by salarian standards, making asari matriarchs and their wisdom particularly noticeable for some salarians, though they would lack the immediacy and daring of their own species. Beautiful eyes of intricate colors and shades could also be very troubling, as they might be hiding a lot under their tantalizing presence.

I also do not think salarians care a lot about nakedness in itself, especially in the damp weather of a rainforest, but might have covered up a lot after meeting other species associating nudity to animals and wilderness, as an effort to get more respected. Still, lack of clothing would probably not make a salarian bat an eye.

And while not sexual, salarians have room to be a very sensual culture through gastronomy and drinks, bright colored skins and clothing, constant proximity to others (I can see salarians being very tactile, especially among brothers and sisters of the same clutch and circle), scents and perfumes, their reliance on water and just having vulnerable epidermis sensitive to changes in their environment, exchanging natural armor or thick leather to reactivity, readability, speed and flexibility. Salarians might enjoy the use of their senses for pleasure, as long as they are intellectualized somewhat, and could use this panel to woo people to their cause in a game of political seduction.

Then of course globalization changed more things, introduced new concepts, and that’s very possible their sense of eroticism evolved to fit in new concepts coming from alien worlds, pushing new unknowns into the reign of sexuality after exposure to alien fiction, as well as introducing the concept of romance to some of the most receptive.

 

* * *

 

  **CONCLUSION**

**Because we need to land this firewreck somewhere**

 

So yes, here laid out is the logic I’m going to use for the Halfway Home series, the frames and themes I care about and the way I chose to approach this fictional species of asexual space frogs. I feel this can be an interesting way of finding out how you feel about the way I think this videogame universe –as you see I have some strong opinions, and this is not going to get any smoother from now on.

As a LAST disclaimer because I know the ways of all the pesky internets out there; this essay or any follow-up of the sort is in zero way an attack or an attempt to shame people that like things or do things. This is not about me shrieking that MAsS EfFEcT iS CAnCELLed and preaching my moral judgments left and right. And it’s certainly not an attack on the writers either –I intimately and painfully know the many struggles of game writing, their work is astonishing and a monument to this day, and we’re talking about 2007 to 2012 standards, which evolved quite a lot since then. At worse this is criticism of an influential piece of pop culture that is outliving itself entirely, and that should be regarded critically for that reason alone. And even though I have my beef with some thematic decisions made, narrative design always go first, and who am I to argue against the masterful pacing and delivery of the Genophage subplot when keeping it complex and nuanced wouldn’t have made for a better experience? Look at all the junk these guys generated in my brain that compelled me to then write about it! I have been obsessed for years, and this is entirely their fault. Good job, you made me talk about frog genitals on the internet, I hope you’re proud.

All of that to say we should really stop alchemy-bonding the very soul of a creator to their creation at this moment x of their lives, because that leads to us being unable to criticize (a _very healthy and important thing to do with our brains_ ) without dropping insults or casual entitlement, or assuming insults/entitlement were weaved into the very fabric of the need to publicly comment on art through a given critical lens.

Look, I’m french, I am genetically unable to stop the Critique Machine. Y’all will have to live with that.

(also I will have to live personally with tons of entitled/insulting people just like me dissecting my own writing on a ridiculous scale at some point in my life not that far off, so let’s call this my last moments in a heaven of blissful ignorance before I hate critique forever too)

Anyway I am super pumped on doing some ground work on a culture, identities and logic that are rarely –if ever – explored, and salarians deserve some love and empathy beyond the individual cool beans we have been introduced to; their culture being quite exceptional as far as fiction is concerned.

 

So I hope you enjoyed this first attempt at essay, and you are now free to go.

Until next time.

(this was so threatening I’m sorry I need to work on my outros)

**Author's Note:**

> \-- REFERENCES  
> Salarian Codex Entry: https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Salarian  
> Haplodiploidy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplodiploidy  
> Spotted hyenas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5monBOLIt5E and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_hyena#Mating,_reproduction,_and_development  
> Ant mating rituals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_ant  
> Real life matriarchies examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_l9D7tEixc and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrnmBLB-UX4  
> Frog reproduction: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/amphibians/frog4.htm  
> Cloacaes and cloacal kiss: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloaca 
> 
> The Consort: https://youtu.be/-EmoI6lBCwY?t=217  
> Bachelor party: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ7r80IOxtE  
> Salarian and asari daughter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlEZjOWr63c  
> Joker and EDI at the Purgatory: https://youtu.be/4cUGv7ZxBZs?t=318  
> Grunt’s talkdown: https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Broker_Terminal  
> Protheans and salarian livers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3o9EPz6sdQ


End file.
